A/N: I'm so sorry for the long wait I've been very busy and finding moments to fit time for this was a real pain! I don't often ask for reviews but please do to let me know you're all still reading and interested for more, I wouldn't continue if it wasn't for your interest. Thanks guys!

Joker

I watched as she drew the fork up to her eyes, examining it closely through her orange holo-visor. EDI sat across from me, fried eggs on a plate in front of her and fork in hand, ready to try one of 'Joker's quick, I-can't-cook' meals. I barely made myself anything, being as simply bending to pick up a fry pan could crack my spine in two, so I'd normally take the easy pickings from the mess sergeant but with him now dead that would be difficult.

It appeared however there was more than the one benefit to the strange new powers we possessed, while my Vrolik's syndrome was nowhere near cured, the addition of Cerberus upgrades in the past and now synthetic additions had increased bone strength avoiding the weak bones I had previously that would shatter under minimal impact. This was made apparent when the ship crashed and not one of my body parts had collapsed under my weight when I had stood- it had just taken me a while to realise that maybe I wasn't completely crippled anymore.

"I have researched all possible uses of forks and their use as an eating utensil. I still however believe the design is flawed." She twisted the fork back and forth, lips turned down at the corners in an apparent frown.

"Oh really?" I smirked, surprised by EDI's distaste for something she'd never really used. "What would you recommend?" She may well have been stalling, I don't think she was looking at my food with an excited outlook, more likely uncertain what she was doing was appropriate at all.

"Well, I have also searched the extranet for spoons, knives, chopsticks and other utensils from around earth and other planets. I myself believe the 'spork' would be a more appropriate tool to use when eating but it seems to lack the popularity a fork has. With a meal such as this-" Her eyes roved to the egg. "It would be more appropriate to have the dip of the spoon and the tines of the fork, to optimise the amount of food collected to place into ones mouth." She poked at the yellow yolk and it spilled out, the runny innards pooling around her plate, just to prove her point. "This meal is both a solid and liquid and if I must say so does not look at all appealing. I recommend you stick to your day job, as a pilot, Jeff." She paused. "That was a joke. It looks edible to an extent."

"Err… Thanks?" I was worried she wouldn't like it now. I hoped she still lacked taste-buds.

I watched her cut away at a slice of yolky egg white with her fork, my breath was held as she drew it to her mouth, placed it gently on her metal tongue and chew thoughtfully momentarily before mimicking a swallow. "That was… surprisingly pleasant. Do you suppose I try the toast?"

"It's better with the egg…" I didn't realise I'd been staring at her this whole time and looked away, not wanting to appear rude. I know EDI didn't mind but she might start commenting on my increased heart rate or lack of oxygen, I hated when she picked up on little things like that, even if it was how she properly gauged emotion. "You might need your knife for the toast though." This was surreal. My robot girlfriend could eat, she'd surpassed AI and was heading straight to human- the next thing I know she'd probably take over someone's body- not a thought I wanted to dwell on. "Bon Appétit..." I mumbled dully, watching with a mixture of interest and discontent.

Tali

I ran my hand across the bedside table as I dropped onto the mattress behind me, now seated; I picked up the picture in its frame that had fallen to the floor, examining the photo through the smashed glass, running a finger over the face. I had few opportunities to see myself without my mask, other's might have been curious of how I looked but the only real time we even got to properly examine our own skin and bodies was when we received a new envirosuit as we grew too large for the old one. I'd experienced it a fair few times as a child, but as I aged I no longer grew at an alarming rate and it had been a while since my last suit change within the fleet's sterile environment.

A placed the photo back on the bedside, drawing in a deep breath. What I would give to feel the sheets in my hands, to be able to breath in Shepard's scent of gun polish and musk from the sweat of battle, it may be possible, but not to talk to him again, to see him one last time. I bit my lip, not wanting to remind myself or I might not be able to stop my descent into madness- I felt like I was going mad already- vision blurring with tears and head fogging with the onset of a headache. I'd become too emotionally attached perhaps, couldn't detach myself from the feelings that made my stomach clench painfully and my eyes sting. It was silly, but I missed him, I didn't really know what had happened to him but the worst thoughts invaded my mind.

The bad thought led me to think of several options, the first I would not accept- Shepard had died on the crucible. I wouldn't believe that, he'd been through so many things before this, how could the most powerful man in the universe fall to such a threat? Harbinger had left with the other reapers. Who knows what Shepard did, but to consider the possibility that his soul had been snuffed out, I clutched to his pillow in my hands now, hugging it close to my armoured chest.

The second thought, Shepard had survived and was stuck back on earth. With the mass relays destroyed the distance between us would be wide but possibly manageable with comms, this was my 'optimistic' assumption, I didn't believe it to be true but I wished desperately for it to be the case.

The third and final option, too farfetched to be optimistic, stretching reality further then the relays expanded interstellar travel was that he'd somehow be here, on this planet, awaiting us to find him. I could only imagine this scenario; it seemed like a young quarian's dream, with little basis for believability I had already passed this off as a simple fancy, a wish. Shepard did amazing things but that was the least likely outcome. I couldn't help but hope though; deep down, that I would see him again, no matter where or how. At least I still had my memories to keep me going.

When he walked over my chest felt heavy, my eyes on his face and my heart beating wildly. "Almost time for the final push, you okay?"

He seemed surprised. "I thought I'd be asking you that question."

"Shepard, I backed you when I was just a kid on her pilgrimage. I backed you when the Normandy was a Cerberus ship." I leaned in, eyes on his face, trying to hide the fear in my eyes. "Wherever you go, I'm with you." There was no fear in my voice, simply truth. "…and you haven't answered my question." I paused, surveying him. "Are you okay?" That was all I cared about, no matter what would happen in the end, I needed to be sure Shepard was alright.

"You remember how you felt when you landed on Rannoch?" I was concerned, knowing whatever he said next would not assuage my fear, I would still worry for him no matter what he said. "Now imagine it's not just a story passed down by your people… imagine you were there just a few months ago."

"And now you're seeing it like this," I finished for him, eyeing off the destruction over his shoulder as I drew closer to his frame.

He turned to face the mess himself, the buildings around us merely rubble, bullets zinging past in different directions as good versed bad. It was slowly falling apart around our heads, we were about to perform the impossible and Shepard was in the middle of it, reassuring us all despite his own unsureness.

"We will." The conviction in my voice even startled me. "Do you remember what we said on Rannoch? Just before you took down that reaper?" I was almost whispering, the memories flooding back then too.

"You said… I love you…" He remembered, pulling close to me once more, I yearned to touch him then too, to feel the softness of his cheek and the hardness of his armour.

"And you said keelah se'lai…" I felt myself begin to break down, my voice as I next spoke coming out cracked. "I want more time…"

"I know." His hand on my shoulder, if only I could feel it, spread warmth from my stomach through my limbs, my fears instantly dissipated once more, as I stared into his eyes, believing truthfully for a moment that everything would be okay. "Whatever happens…"

"I know," I repeated back, our faces were close for a moment, if it wasn't for the mask I imagine we would have kissed right there and then. The moment passed and we pulled away, ready to face the battle that was awaiting us.

I could feel the tears tracking from my eyes down my cheeks and in an impulsive moment put my hand to my mask and removed it. I threw it behind me on the bed so I could wipe at my face, the pillow still clutched tightly in my other hand. This wasn't how I imagined the next step, after we defeated the reaper threat. I thought we would have a happy ending, I guess you can only have so many of those before the tide changes.

I wasn't too concerned when I'd removed my mask; I hadn't yet succumbed to the sickness that I had planned for earlier in the day. With broken armour it had only been a matter of time, but I didn't even have the sniffles, so I couldn't see myself succumbing to illness now, in the room I'd removed my mask in several times before. I pulled at the gloves on my hands, detached my armour from my torso and arms, leaving me in my leg armour, head scarf and a simple tunic covering my front. I ran my hand over the blanket, not used to the alien feeling of soft plush fabric. I shivered slightly, cold from the lack of covering, but I preferred it, I felt free from my confines.

I tried to ignore the funny lines running up my pale arms, knowing I was being childish by denying their existence. I wasn't ready to accept what had happened, it was wrong to be merged with technology; we worked so hard to fight against it and now we had become it. So much for fighting for our rights as biological species, now we were no different to what we had worked to destroy. I was sure I had it right; we shouldn't celebrate these new abilities but mourn what we had lost to make way for this technology, not just our friends but ourselves.

My thoughts were punctured by the sound of the cabins door opening, Garrus walked in, obviously not expecting me here, especially not without my mask. His eyes went from my face to said mask on the bed and he quickly put two and two together. I wasn't expecting him here either and suddenly felt quite naked, despite the tunic, not used to being without my envirosuit within anyone's presence but Shepard's. "Garrus…"

"Tali?" He was examining my face, I felt my cheeks grow hot, not used to the attention from the turian. "What are you doing in here?" I'm glad he didn't tack on anything about my lack of envirosuit.

"I think I have more of a reason to be in here then you…" I shot back, not sure why I was on the defensive, after all he hadn't done anything wrong. "What were you planning on doing?" I queried, eyeing him off suspiciously. He hesitated; I think he was still surprised to see my face beyond its usual confines.

He held up the Normandy model and the little mass relay. "…I found these in the cockpit and wanted to return them to their rightful place…" His mandibles twitched slightly, I think my accusing tone was agitating him.

"Thank you, Garrus." I replied stiffly, still unsure why I was behaving so horrible. First I shot at him and now I was treating him like a stow-away and not my dear friend. My emotions were taking over, turning me into something I didn't like. "Is that all?" My replies weren't even my own anymore.

"…I suppose for now…" He placed the ships up on their stands, looked like he was about to say something but thought better of it as he opened and closed his mouth. "Goodnight Tali." He spoke with the same lack of emotion I had, I watched him walk out feeling rather hollow, the door closing behind him with a snap.

So maybe I wasn't in the mood to talk, I was exhausted from the day's events and all the thoughts circling my addled brain again and again. He was merely interrupting, what I had started and I think I earned some time alone for a while. Still… I sighed outwardly. He didn't deserve the cold shoulder from me, after helping me in the forest earlier. More thoughts to dwell on, more to feel awful about, why was I behaving so childish when this situation called for unity? Because Shepard is not here to keep everyone together, he had a gift of keeping us all friendly. Shut up brain, I didn't need reminding.

Garrus

I was feeling touchy about Tali's behaviour the night before and still could not believe I had seen her without her mask on. No one but the quarians and their mates knew what they looked like; I never expected I would see any quarian- including Tali beneath their suit, Rannoch was still a long way from being their home planet again, one they could safely survive without sickness in. So how the hell had she managed to survive it now? Something had change, and it was fairly obvious what. I scratched at my skin with my talons, eyeing the light lines that travelled up my arm and beneath my skin plates.

I was sullen through breakfast, joining in on the conversation but with nothing particular to say, EDI's eating drew much attention around the table and she discussed her 'evolution' with the group at large, their interest reflecting her own. She was asking just as many questions about eating and digestion from an 'organic' point of view, whether our synthesis had any effect on the process and then ate some dextro food with bad results- the taste was not to her liking. All odd from my perspective, robots were not supposed to be able to eat, sleep or do anything that would be conducive to life, her behaviour was alien (a somewhat redundant phrase in this day and age) and I wasn't appreciative of the strange behaviours. Tali, still in a bad mood, mirrored my thoughts obviously, keeping quite as she sipped slowly at her food through a straw.

We decided that on the day's agenda we would all journey out to the clearing together, try to scavenge what we could and collect further food rations. The extra hands would help and the ship was meanwhile fine regardless, there wasn't much that could happen to it in our absence. Tali had re-donned her mask and suit today, we didn't directly talk to one another, behaving like children in a fight, it was easier to say nothing then to admit fault, so we spent our time skirting around each other, not wanting to draw attention to the aloof attitude we had adopted in the other's presence. It would do no good to have the whole group drawn into our petty argument; I did not want to cause another fissure in our already broken crew- we did not need the added stressor and opportunity to break apart, so easily done in this survival situations.

James and I ensured the crew was suitable equipped, delegating guns and armour to strength, weakness and race. It was weird to see Joker, so usually done up in his plain shirt and cap wearing light armour and donning an assault rifle like it was his usual affair. Doctor Chakwas wasn't a fan of going on ground support, preferring to stay on the vessel, but recognised the need for medical support with so many of us in the group. She wielded a pistol, told us she knew how to use it but would prefer not to, being a healer, not a killer. I disagreed, in this environment we would all have to be killers, anything could jump out at us to send us straight to the spirits, we couldn't risk being too cautious to fire, no matter the cost. My tune had changed since we'd been attacked by those pack animals yesterday; this place likely had more in store for us.

EDI had the Normandy locked tight but could not get any of the defences operational, the ship was defenceless but we hoped the repairs we had done would hold out to provide a barrier to snooping animals. A shifty looking space cow stole Shepard's creds once, one of them on the ship could take anything their grabby extra hands could grasp, and several of them could be pandemonium.

We followed the same path we had the day before, through the strange glowing shrubbery. EDI and I took the lead, the others all followed. Joker, Bethany, Samantha and Karin were flanked by James, having not been on the path before and three out of four not well used to using guns. Survival was the most important aspect now; we needed a way to travel, and enough supplies to keep us going. With the Normandy out, we would have to look into alternatives, or fixing her up, either way it wasn't going to be an easy task and without the mass relays it would be impossible to get anywhere familiar in less than a decade, even with a working navigation system which we didn't currently have. I didn't want to dwell on this negatives, I was determined to return to civilization and eventually Palaven again, even if it required me to build a relay by hand.

We were all silent, not wanting to give away our position with speech, guns at the ready, no mistakes this time, we weren't going to be hunted, we would be the ones doing the hunting. Our armoured shoes crunching dead leaves punctured the noise of our sloshing drinks in our flasks and the life teeming in the forest, it would make hearing us easy but the trees were very leafy and we were well hidden amongst the thick, close together branches. Rustling in the bushes ahead of us and a squeaking had us on edge, all nine of us (some faster than others) trained our guns as two small furry animals scurried across the path and under another shrub; their fur was glowing lightly on the tips like fibre optics. I expanded my mandibles, relaxing as the threat turned out to be a false alarm, I could see one of us returning to the ship from a misplaced shot to the foot in our haste to shoot at an 'enemy'. Everything out here was dangerous, there were nine of us now but who knows how many of us there could be in a week?

Samantha

I was not trained to be a soldier, I had basic weapons experience, I could shoot a target with a pistol no problem, but it often wasn't moving and I never wore armour. It was only light but I wasn't conditioned to it, its bulk and tight fit making it hard for me to walk at an efficient speed or with light footedness. I hate to imagine how Joker was coping, the helmet on my head decreased visibility too, I found it annoying that I had to turn my head to look to my forward left and right, I glanced at the other in question, he seemed to be coping, keeping up as well as I, but he was hobbling slightly, the armour taking its toll.

I was starting to get sick of bumping up against trees, forgetting to keep a slight distance due to padded shoulder guards, when EDI told us all to stop moving and stay silent. At least the trees were thinning out, the plants that stretched on for miles now diminishing to reveal tufts of yellowing grass. "I seem to be picking up on communications; I'm relaying the language through your translators now."

"I can't hear anything," Garrus admitted in a whisper, I strained my ears but couldn't hear the slightest hint of anything, just the whistling of the wind as it crept through the crack in my visor. God dammit. We cautiously continued forward, EDI seeming to hover, she was completely silent as we walked, not a single footfall or twitch of the finger making any noise, not to my basic human ears anyway, she was the perfect hunter, able to pick up noise from miles away. We crouched low in the plants to as not to attract attention, I saw them before I could hear them, it was hard not to miss.

Thick ropes pulled taught as they stripped the ships of their metal, attached to the other end of the ropes were enormous aliens of unknown race to me, larger than the krogan, the elcor and the yahg combined. They were like a fairy-tale; the giants from jack in the beanstalk, except these guys were completely hairless, red in colouration and had two pairs of arms and hands. The immense strength they must have to be able to rip metal from an alliance vessel would surely be enough to crush one as well, using their powerful bodies to stretch forward, ropes around their shoulders and use their brute force to rip large chunks of ship from itself. The screeching was ear-splitting, worse than nails down a chalkboard.

"Someone beat us too it." James didn't sound disappointed; rather, glad we weren't being ripped up like the ships. Those creatures weren't the ones talking though, distinctly in the middle of the group of large creatures, for there were six of the giants, was nothing much more than mere man, impossible to tell true identity from this distance, but enough to make my blood run cold- could he control them?

"The ascent is upon us!" Yelled the man, if that was what he was. "Soon we shall be brought forth before our masters and they shall deem us worthy. We have already been granted great wisdom and power, but now much more will be delivered. We asked for more shelter, and we got what we asked for, just look around you at the bounty we've received from the skies. We asked for food and look around you, no longer will we have to hunt to feed ourselves and the great-ones! We have been provided for anew, we are now all granted with the knowledge of the planet, we have all received the greatest blessing," He tore at the grass beneath him and sparks flew, this rippled on for several meters, the grass was too tall to make out much more.

"He's not the only one…" Garrus murmured, as if he knew what I was thinking, glancing through his sniper rifle site. They must have all picked at the grass, causing several of the electrical connections to sever across the clearing.

James grunted. "We had to land on the one planet that had its own cult, great…"

As we watched the people dispersed from their grouping, entering the ships and picking through what was available, the 'great-ones' as they had been referred to dragged their metal away into the trees on the other side of the clearing, obviously we weren't the only ones wanting to get an early start.

Yells and screams from nearby attracted our attention and we watched as several of the men exited one of the ships with a young boy, dragged by the hair in one man's hand. He verbally protested, as well as physically, grabbing the muscled man's hand with both his own and kicking out at the ground as he struggled. I felt my stomach knot at the way he was treated, knowing it would be foolish of me to react and get us all killed, I'd likely miss anyway.

They all wore basic clothes, tunics and pants made of animal skins, the young boy wore a simple wrap that went over both his shoulders and covered him to the knees, something must have kept it fastened as he was making enough movement to dislodge it. The boy was dragged to the man who had spoken originally, the captor dropping the child at his feet. "We found him hiding away, likely trying to take the bounty for himself." Their booming voices were loud across the clearing, with little real wind to carry it away.

"Do you suppose yourself worthy boy?" The response appeared less then hoped for as the child spat out at the supposed leader.

"More worthy then you." The child yelped as he was kicked in the back to the ground.

"Watch your tongue, the ascent only comes to those who are worthy, interrupting the cleansing, interrupting the work of your elders, these are all grounds for expulsion, or would you rather a quick death? For either way you will be placed in an early grave." He pulled a sword from his wrappings, I gasped; I was not prepared for this, watching on in transfixed fascination as the child was kept still with another clutch at his hair.

I watched, the distance making it hard to see properly- to which I was thankful- as he raised the weapon above his head. "One less mouth to feed!" The sword came down; a ringing filled my ears and blood sprayed across the leaders face, but not from the expected source.

Garrus panted, shot newly fired from his Viper, hitting the captor in the head, causing him to drop the boy who missed his death by a centimetre. "I never did take kindly to terrorists, even the primitive kind." I felt faint, I wasn't trained for this.